When Jones Road Beauty shared their first few TikTok videos following their ‘less is more’ makeup ethos, they had little expectations of how well they’d do.
But the positive response blew them away 🤯
The bite-sized videos drove engagement and 4xed the makeup brand’s revenue according to Cody Plofker, the Director of Ecommerce. In fact, TikTok contributed 2% of their total revenue in 2020, a number that grew to 34% by 2022.
How is TikTok able to drive such impressive results?
We reviewed 10 ecommerce brands (including Jones Road) winning at TikTok — analyzing their strategy including the types of videos they’re posting and what they’re doing to engage their audience.
We’ve summarized our findings as tactical steps so you can create high-converting TikToks that generate brand awareness, grow engagement, and drive sales.
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10 research-backed steps to up your TikTok game
Based on lessons from 330+ TikToks, here are our top 11 action steps for you:
1. Pay attention to who and what customers watch
2. Create a full-funnel TikTok strategy
3. Include native TikTok and polished content in your strategy
4. Plan holiday campaigns in advance
5. Be aware of relevant TikTok trends
6. Use video hooks and pattern interrupts to capture attention
7. Use the green screen effect to tell authentic brand stories
8. Add founder-led, niche expert, and employee videos to the mix
9. Have an engagement plan in place
10. Collaborate with TikTok influencers to promote products and drive sales
1. Pay attention to who and what customers watch
Digging into a quarter’s worth of TikToks from 10 ecommerce brands highlighted an essential point: winning on TikTok takes more than a generic understanding of “what” interests your target audience.
Instead, dive deep into the:
- Questions your target buyers are asking
- Trends they’re reacting to
- Hashtags they’re exploring (or actively searching for)
- And, the TikTok creators they’re following
Tools like Sparktoro help with this.
Another idea is to type a keyword relevant to your brand in the TikTok search bar and go through the hashtags that show up. By reading the comments people make on TikToks using these hashtags, you can learn your audience’s interests on the app.
Take it from the washable rugs brand, Ruggable. Their TikToks show they understand their audience well. This video on coastal cowgirl decor, for example, shows the team analyzed prevailing trends on the platform to share trending interior design advice:
2. Create a full-funnel video strategy for TikTok
All the ecommerce players in our sample set have a video strategy divided by funnel stages at the heart of their TikTok brand. So you’ll see:
- Top funnel educational or entertainment content
- Middle-funnel content that addresses concerns that on-the-fence buyers have
- Bottom funnel videos announcing discounts and sales
Different types of videos help you reach people who are unaware, have questions, and are ready to buy.
Here are some examples:
Educational videos about topics overlapping your audience’s interest and your value proposition
Gut health supplement brand, AG1 (formerly Athletic Greens) shares wellness tips for top-funnel content.
Similarly, home décor company Lulu and Georgia, created this 10-part series titled, 10 design principles we live by for reeling in new followers and educating their audience:
Product awareness driving series-based content
The hashtag #streetinterview has 7.7B views on TikTok showing this type of series-based, interviews have quite some viewer demand.
It’s no wonder 4 out of the 10 brands we studied create episodic content featuring street interviews. And they do these interviews not only for their top-funnel education but also for increasing product awareness.
AG1, for example, records strangers’ reactions after giving samples of their supplement drink. These first-time reaction videos are fun to watch and also tell viewers about the benefits of AG1 as the host shares how the drink is helpful:
Videos answering frequently asked questions (FAQs)
With time, as you grow your TikTok following, people will ask the same questions about your product in the comments. Source those questions to create new TikToks answering them.
AG1 treats this as a mid-funnel opportunity since these commenters could be one step away from buying:
Comparison videos
Comparison videos are another idea for middle funnel content.
Magnetic lashes and press-on nails brand, Glamnetic does ‘why-we’re-better-than-the-competitors-videos’ well:
Notice how they show press-on nails from other brands coming off when you wear them to do daily tasks before they show how Glamnetic’s nails don’t come off doing the same tasks.
Ecommerce brands can emulate by “showing” how their product is better than the others in the market to convince customers to buy from them.
Product behind-the-scenes (BTS)
Show how you work on your products or what makes them unique with these mid-funnel product behind-the-scenes TikToks.
This Ruggable video, for instance, explains how they test their rugs — using a fun and friendly tone of voice to subtly convince viewers why their rugs are worth the purchase:
Pro tip: Build brand affinity by sharing behind-the-scenes content such as photoshoots’ backstage content and event highlights — Jones Road and Lulu and Georgia do these well.
Product explainers or tutorials
Yet another video idea to persuade potential buyers to buy from you are product explainers that show the different ways to use your product.
Notebook and stationery store, Notebook Therapy, creates these videos for the new collections they launch:
Gut-healthy soda brand, OLIPOP takes a slight twist to these videos by sharing recipes for drinks you can make using their soda (think OLIPOP-based Pina Colada and mocktails). They also make these product combo videos that mix two of their flavors:
These combination videos don’t only encourage sales but also retain regular customers by giving them ideas for new flavors and combinations to try with OLIPOP.
Discount, product launch, and restock announcements
For the bottom funnel, sale announcements, unboxing, and launch TikToks help viewers envision themselves using the products.
Let’s say you’ve launched a new collection. Promote it by creating a TikTok like the one below — sharing an overview of the new products. Here’s an example:
Plus, if you get a lot of queries about when a certain product will be restocked, be sure to create restock announcement videos.
These don’t even have to be complicated. Look at this example from the skincare brand, Pipette Baby. The video creator brings the restocked items in front of the camera for a close-up before putting them in a basket:
Videos to engage customers who’ve already bought from you
Lastly, make TikToks to share ideas about ways your customers can use your product.
For apparel brands, this would mean sharing ways to style your clothes. Beauty brands can share makeup looks or skincare routines customers can try. Similarly, food and drink sellers can share recipes.
OLIPOP’s flavor combination TikToks are one example here. Another one is product cleaning or maintenance tips such as this one from Ruggable on cleaning small spots from their rugs:
3. Include native TikTok and polished content in your strategy
9 out of 10 ecommerce brands that were part of this analysis use a mix of authentic (native videos shot on the app) and pre-recorded, professional-quality product videos on their TikTok channels.
This approach is great for maintaining your TikTok posting frequency since you don’t need to worry about sharing only professionally edited videos that take a team to make.
However, the ideal mix for your channel depends on your product type and video strategy.
Notebook Therapy, for instance, posts time-lapse videos sharing bullet journaling inspiration and step-by-step doodle videos that are best consumed in edited versions to save viewers’ time:
4. Plan holiday campaigns in advance
Most of the brands we studied also plan TikTok campaigns for upcoming holidays and events.
For example, feminine hygiene company Thinx partnered with a psychiatry resident for National Stress Awareness Day (relevant to their brand) to share stress relief tips.
Similarly, Glamnetic posted makeup looks for Pride month:
Use a retail marketing calendar to plan your campaigns — make 3-5 TikToks for creating hype around an upcoming holiday offer and drive sales.
5. Be aware of relevant TikTok trends
All ecommerce companies we studied jump on TikTok trends relevant to their brand.
For example, Ruggable hopped on to talk about the Netflix show, Queen Charlotte but with a creative twist — sharing pictures of rooms featuring their rugs that look like they’re from the trending show:
Creating trending TikToks shows your brand personality, helping you connect better with your audience. They also get you more exposure and followers as TikTok users following the trend watch your video.
Make sure you regularly review videos in the Discover tab on TikTok to identify trends that people are reacting to. Then decide if the trend is relevant to your brand before making a TikTok on it.
6. Use video hooks and pattern interrupts to capture attention
Our study also showed the majority of the TikToks used engaging video hooks (opening scenes) and pattern interrupts ( visual changes in a video that refocus viewers’ attention) to attract viewers.
Take this example from OLIPOP where the creator catches attention with a tin-wearing host:
Similarly, this Tiktok from Ruggable uses a pattern interrupt — a talking dog announcing a rug sale which is both cute and unique — to encourage people to watch:
For adding engaging hooks and pattern interrupts to your TikToks, pay attention to what makes you pause as you scroll through videos in your feed (the For You page).
Eventually, you’ll start noticing that engaging video openings share commonalities — for instance, they open with a joke, an inspiring quote, or a question that you have. Or, they make pop culture references.
7. Use the green screen effect to tell authentic brand stories
The green screen effect (available in the app’s Effects gallery in the Create section) lets you superimpose any image or video in your background.
By using it to add an interesting background relevant to what your TikTok is about, say a movie poster or the blue ocean, you can make your video visually interesting.
Use it to tell engaging stories and create tutorials or how-to TikToks with images or video clips illustrating the steps you’re sharing.
Another idea is to use the green screen effect to recycle content you’ve already created. Think: YouTube videos, pictures on your Instagram, or published blog posts.
AG1 did this by creating a TikTok featuring their social media manager’s talking head with a background of stock visuals and screenshots from their 2022 Impact Report.
The host shared three interesting takeaways from their research while highlighting how AG1 is following them. In doing so, the video hits two birds with one stone: educates its viewers and shows AG1’s brand values:
8. Add founder-led, niche expert, and employee videos to the mix
Half of the brands we reviewed create TikToks featuring their founder, employees, or niche experts — an excellent way to show the people behind your brand to connect with viewers.
Glamnetic and Jones Road, in particular, nail this type of video.
For example, when Glamentic hit 1.2 million orders on Shopify, they posted a TikTok featuring their founder sharing the backstory:
Jones Road, on the other hand, spotlights their founder for different objectives like:
- Answering questions the audience has about their products
- Asking viewers what content they’d like to see
- And, explaining the story behind creating a product
If your founder doesn’t want to be on camera though, collaborate with internal subject matter experts to share educational content.
Yet another idea is to go behind the scenes by featuring employees in your TikToks. This internal story from a model who works with Thinx is a great example:
You can also do staff picks for an entertaining twist with these TikToks:
9. Have an engagement plan in place
For TikTok to bring in triple-digit sales, it’s important you create a community there.
The best way to do so? Engage with the people who follow you. This goes beyond replying to their comments though. Here are some ideas:
- Ask followers to use the Stitch feature to create TikToks sharing their responses to your videos. Thinx even incentivized their followers to create these TikToks.
- Shoot quick TikToks on the app to respond to comments on your videos. Video responses are particularly helpful for answering questions related to your product or for solving reservations buyers have. Jones Road founder, Bobbi Brown responding to people’s comments about their product Miracle Balm being sticky is a good example here.
- Host giveaways. Pipette Baby hosted one in the summers — giving away sunscreen (very weather appropriate, isn’t it?).
10. Collaborate with TikTok influencers to promote products and drive sales
Almost all the brands we reviewed partner with niche creators. The benefits? Growing your following and engagement, increasing brand awareness and credibility, and driving sales.
You can hit tons of goals with the partnership such as:
- Spread awareness about a new product
- Reach a new audience
- Announce a sale
You can also try different campaigns with TikTok influencers to find out what gets the most engagement from your audience. For example, ask creators to make unboxing videos or TikToks sharing their reviews of your product.
You can also ask them to record TikToks showing their first reaction to your product — something that SKIMS does with creators:
Wrapping up: Key takeaways, to-dos, and reminders
In conclusion, our top two takeaways from this mini-study are:
👉 All the TikTok channels we studied have a video strategy in place with brands sharing TikToks to educate, entertain, engage, and sell.
👉 Most brands share their personality by highlighting their behind-the-scenes processes and featuring the humans behind their brand in their TikToks. We saw tons of employee- and founder-led videos too.
To hit the ground running yourself, start with understanding what videos your ideal viewers enjoy on the app so you can create a video strategy for your TikTok account.
Be sure to use different video types and engage with your followers. You can also partner with internal employees, subject matter experts, and other TikTok creators to grow your followers and credibility.
Here’s to your success on TikTok 🥂
Explore Vimeo’s offerings for TikTok creators, including online hosting, the text editor, timeline editing, video graphics features, and the convert image-to-video tool.
